Schaeffer's report on the workers' demands at the excavation siteClaude Frédéric-Armand Schaeffer

Handwritten: Schaeffer signature in red crayon at top left, with "Chypre" written beneath; illegible

Excavations at Enkomi, Famagusta, 15 Sept.1946.

Sir, the Secretary General of the Commission des Fouilles Directorate-General of Cultural Relations, Paris

As I said in a postscript to my last report from Arslan Tepe-Malatya, the Mission arrived on 31 August by air from Ankara at Nicosia, where the next day, Monday 2 September, I was able to make contact with the authorities. Thanks to their eagerness and to loans of equipment granted by the military authorities, I was able to organise the mission within a period of 3 days. On 4 September we left Nicosia for Famagusta and on 5 September we were in operation at Enkomi.

I first met with difficulties in finding enough workmen. The able-bodied population of the villages of the Enkomi region works in the camps being organised to house the clandestine Jewish immigrants from Palestine.

Thanks to the intervention of the mayor of Famagusta, leader of the Labour party, and of the general secretary of the trade unions (communist), I was able to obtain reinforcements and engage 150 men and women. In the following week, although the wages had been officially fixed, two successive strikes took place. The workmen demanded a wage increase from 6 to 8 shillings a day, a 44-hour week (which in reality, as he works in teams of two, amounts only to 22 hours of effective work), 3 days' notice before dismissal, and a consultation of a workmen's sub-committee before any change of personnel, dismissals etc.

As it was impossible to accept these conditions, I stopped the excavations and had the spokesmen summoned to the communist general secretary at Famagusta. The latter had the workmen give up several of their demands, but asked me to accept the principle of work in teams of two (a man to pick, a woman to shovel afterwards, permission for the other to sit or lie down in the meantime), and to pay the increase from 6/7 to 7/8 shillings. A workmen's committee must be set up on the excavations, but its role is limited to passing on to the director any complaints from the workmen. It has no business to interfere in the management of the work.

I pointed out to the secretary of the trade unions that he was sanctioning exceptional demands and wages out of proportion to the work supplied, and I made all reservations regarding my decision in case the sub-committee's promises to improve the output of work should not be fulfilled.

Work was resumed the next day, but given the appreciable increase in wages, I had to reduce the number of workmen from 150 to 120 men.

Two days were enough to show that the promises will not be kept; the laziness of the labour force is systematic, constant, obstinate. I asked, in agreement with the authorities here, who recognise the situation, that the government give me some fifty German prisoners or Jewish labour. The question is under study, but it is feared that the population, already discontented (because of the presence of the Jewish camps, which would cause a general shortage and a rise in prices), may take hostile action. In reality, the Cypriots, whose lack of activity the Romans already noted, have been spoiled by the years of war, during which it was possible to earn easily with a minimum of activity. Pockets full, moreover, the working population is organising itself and thinks it can impose its conditions. Famagusta, I am told, is the 'red' region of the island.